Local coffee shop promotes poetry

The Caffeine Library in Edinburg hosted its monthly poetry open mic on Nov. 18, where community members came together to celebrate literacy and performance.

The shop opened on Sept. 30 and doubles as a coffee house and bookstore with a wide variety of titles to select from.

Jaime Montelongo, co-owner of The Caffeine Library, said he had always wanted to open a cafe in the Rio Grande Valley.

He added it took almost a year to open the coffee shop but despite some struggles, it was a good learning experience.

Since opening day, Montelongo and staff have hosted multiple events a month to engage the community in coming together to celebrate the arts.

Some events include open mics, author signings, movie nights, book clubs and watch parties for UTRGV football games.

“Community is super important to us,” Montelongo said. “We want to create a safe and welcoming space for students to come study [and] hang out with friends.”

The shop was near full capacity for the Nov. 18 poetry open mic with many participating and supporting other poets.

The headliner for open mic was Krista Olivarez, a UTRGV creative writing graduate student, who is a local performance poet.

Olivarez said she is drawn to poetry because it gives people the opportunity to be exposed to something  they don’t have the courage to say themselves.

She added her poems typically deal with themes such as femininity, mental health and cultural identity.

“Whatever I’m dealing with and thinking about, I’ll write a poem about that,” Olivarez said. “When I go a long time without performing, I feel like I’m going to go crazy.”

Montelongo said he believes it is important to promote literature in the Valley because there are a lot of readers in the area, but a lack of business that cater toward those interests.

“I was excited to bring this here to the Valley,” he said.

Marcy Garza, a UTRGV clinical counseling graduate student, said she thinks poetry can do more than just interpret one’s own personal emotions.

“The way we write a poem, someone else may resonate with it differently,” she said. “I think that’s what’s beautiful about poetry as a whole.”

The Caffeine Library is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Sunday and is located at 1518 W University Dr. in Edinburg.